Marriage

Articles

While the couple could not have a legal wedding in their home country, they decided they wanted to host a celebration anyway to mark the occasion. “Even if it’s not legal, we want all of our friends and families to be there and to keep the Jewish tradition,” one of the men said.

“Today’s judgment will force Muslim and other women to turn to Sharia ‘courts’ that already cause significant harm to women and children for remedies because they are now locked out of the civil justice system. "Pragna Patel, SBS

The Court of Appeal judgment (14 February 2020) ruled that women who are unable to register their marriage in accordance with the law cannot on the break-up of their marriage seek to ‘void’ it, which means that they are not entitled to any financial remedies. This outcome has profoundly discriminatory consequences for minority women.

Many women turn to us for support and assistance in contexts where they have no control over the marriage process and are deprived of their rights. Our work shows that increasing numbers of women from Muslim and some from other minority backgrounds are deliberately threatened, coerced or deceived into entering a religious marriage only. The Court of Appeal judgment (14 February 2020) ruled that women who are unable to register their marriage in accordance with the law cannot on the break-up of their marriage seek to ‘void’ it. This means that they are not entitled to financial remedies.

The government urgently needs to examine its own complicity in keeping religious fundamentalists in business through other contradictory policies. Sharia ’courts’, have been actively tolerated in Britain by being given charitable status and treated as partners by the police and local councils.

The remit for the project includes developing a scheme that would allow non-religious belief groups, such as humanists, and independent celebrants to celebrate weddings, enabling Government to widen the routes to legally binding ceremonies if it chooses to do so.

Laws based on secular values and underpinned by human rights are equally applicable to all citizens – without discrimination. Religious arbitration of any kind should never be enforced or imposed as if it were the law of the land. All marriages – including faith-based marriages – should be registered under the law so that the rights of the most vulnerable may be protected.